It's a little bit of everything. It's the blockers. It's the scheme. We've got to do a better job with the scheme. ...

Bill O’Brien wasn’t about to sit at the front of the room and rehash the penalties, communication issues and miscues his team had last Saturday against Ohio State. During his weekly press conference, which was delayed until Wednesday because of Hurricane Sandy, O’Brien said his team “has turned the page.”

“We’ve moved on from Ohio State,” O’Brien said. “We’ve moved on to Purdue and hopefully we’ve corrected the mistakes from that game in practice. ... At yesterday’s practice the pad we’re popping and that was really good to see.”

Penn State running back Bill Belton runs during the third quarter against Ohio at Beaver Stadium.JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News

O’Brien also remains his harshest critic. He said he needs to do a better job communicating the cadence with his offense, improving the team’s kickoff returns and handling the challenges that come his way.

He met with quarterback Matt McGloin and center Matt Stankiewitch earlier this week to discuss ways to improve his communication with them. The team used a silent count at home last week, something players said they struggled with.

O’Brien will continue to practice with crowd noise this week to insure his team understands the signals and can operate efficiently in loud environments.

Improving kickoffs is an area O’Brien has brought up several times this season. At one point he said it was the team’s specialists who need to perform better, but on Wednesday he was candid about the entire return game.

“It’s a little bit of everything. It’s the blockers, it’s the scheme, we’ve got to do a better job with the scheme. It’s the return guys. It’s 11 guys working together. We’ve got to coach it better. We’ve really worked on it this week and hopefully you’ll see improvement in it this weekend,” He said. “When we’re starting drives inside the 15 yard line, in the Big Ten it’s hard to drive the ball consistently 85, 90 yards”

O’Brien said he will make a decision Friday night about who will return kickoffs. Running back Bill Belton, cornerback Jesse Della Valle and wide receiver Alex Kenney have been back there this season. Cornerback Adrian Amos, who fielded four returns this season, said he’s continued retuning kicks in practice. Amos laughed and said “We’ll see Saturday” when asked if he’ll be back there against the Boilermakers.

For the first time this season, O’Brien revealed that kicker Sam Ficken has been dealing with a “quad issue” for the past few weeks. Ficken has made three of the last four field goals he’s gotten off but the team is monitoring the amount of kicks Ficken takes in practice. O’Brien was pleased with the way Ficken connected on kickoffs against Ohio State. Ficken is 5-for-12 on field goals this season.

“We have confidence in Sam’s ability but we’ve had to monitor his leg over the last couple weeks,” O’Brien said. “Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll have a better idea of what his range can be. ... I have confidence in Sam.”

Tight end Kyle Carter (foot) was listed as probable on the team’s injury report and remains day to day. Teammates said Carter wasn’t a full participant in Tuesday’s practice but remain optimistic he’ll play against Purdue.

If Carter can’t go Saturday, something receiver Allen Robinson said he “doesn’t think will be the case,” all of the other tight ends know how to run both the F and Y positions, O’Brien said.

“What people have to understand is those positions are interchangeable,” he said. “Those are two positions that are difficult in our offense to learn, second only to the quarterback position because you’re involved in all faucets of the game.”